Drizzling sympathy: Ideal victims and flows of sympathy in Swedish courts

Abstract

By connecting sociological perspectives on sympathy with the concept of ‘ideal victims’, this article examines how sympathy forms and informs legal thought and practices in relation to victim status in Swedish courts. In its broadest sense, sympathy can be understood as an understanding and care for someone else’s suffering and in many contexts victimization and sympathy are densely entangled. However, since ideals of objectivity and neutrality prevail in court, emotional norms are narrow and sympathy is met with suspicion. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Swedish courts, I argue that while sympathetic feelings are mostly backgrounded, they are still a central part of court proceedings and deliberations. The main findings suggest that prosecutors and victims’ counsel use ‘sympathy cues’ to evoke the judges’ concern for the complainants and to facilitate their empathic imagination of the complainant’s situation. In relation to this finding, judges engage in emotion work in order to not be affected by these sympathy cues. The study also shows that in encounters with ‘ideal victims’ who perform a playful resistance to their victimization, legal actors show sympathy more freely and accept moments of temporary relief from the normal interaction order in court.

Experience of guilt in court hearings—Comparing rape, assault and fraud cases

“…These oral presentations can be cause for strong emotions and reactions, while scrutinising questions by opposing counsel can be considered victim blaming (cf. Dahlberg, 2009; Flower, 2018; Törnqvist, 2022; Wettergren & Bergman Blix, 2016).…”

The power of professional ideals: Understanding and handling victims’ emotions in criminal cases

“…The notion of ideal emotions may affect institutional actors’ impression of the victim if the victim does not react according to these expectations, and even affect their sympathy towards these victims (cf. Törnqvist, 2021). Following this theoretical outline, our specific aim is to analyse how criminal justice actors confront victims with preconceived ideas about their emotional behaviour.…”